My district is really big on independent reading. My district is also really big on "accountability." Unfortunately, these two items don't really go hand in hand. It is very hard to hold kids accountable for their independent reading. I use a couple of methods, including independent reading checks and logs of various kinds, all found in my independent reading strategy folder.

Another tool that helps keep track of independent reading is Shelfari, the virtual and social bookshelf site. For how to set up Shelfari, use this lesson: Virtual Bookshelf Day.

Towards the end of the year, we have a final day where students tally up the total number of books they read during the year. They can keep track of this in their notebooks. Then they come up with the total number of genres they've read, again using Shelfari. Then they should decide their favorite book that they've read within each genre.

Watch this video to learn how to "tag" books for a certain school year, to help with tallying totals at the end of the year: